Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies | 
 enlarge | Author: Jared M. Diamond
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1072 reviews
Sales Rank: 3010
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0393317552
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.4
EAN: 9780393317558
ASIN: 0393317552
Publication Date: April 1, 1999
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Amazon.com Review
Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.
Product Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1067 more reviews...
Great subject and treatment - shakey science October 2, 2008
I know everyone says this - just adding my voice.
The author needs to define his terms - what does he mean by 'smart' when talking about the New Guineans. What does he mean by calling Australia 'backwards'? I wish he developed these vague/biased terms.
Is Western Society truly superior? September 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was tempted to give Jared 5 stars based on the extent of his information and his strength of his argument. I gave him only 4 stars because, although I think he is 75% correct, I think he has ignored or denies factors that may be important.
Early in his book, Kali, an intelligent New Guinean and would-be shaker and mover asks a significant question. "Why does the white man have more cargo [goods, stuff, useful things] than we do? Jared, correctly in my opinion, refutes the politically incorrect view that New Guineans must be less intelligent than whites. Quite the contrary, Jared asserts. New Guineans, on the average, are more intelligent than whites.
A little like Jared, I've had the opportunity to live with 'primitive' people and have seen their superiority to me in things like bushcraft, tracking, spacial orientation and other things....yet.... they are not necessarily more intelligent than I am. Their experience is simply different than mine. I agree, however, that they are, on the average, intelligent people dealing with problems somewhat different those of 'civilized' individuals.
Jared attributes the dominance of Western Man over almost all other peoples of the earth because of our geographical location and because of the fortuitous presence of large wild animals that had the potential for domestication i.e. animals like the auroch, wild horse, ibex, wild sheep etc. In the Americas, for instance--despite the fact that the meso-Americans and Andean peoples may have been superior to Western peoples in terms of agriculture--the only domesticatable wild animal available to them may have been the vicuna. Therefore, native-americans were obliged to carry things themselves. Hence Cortes conquered Mexico, rather than Montezuma conquering Spain.....but....We know, from toys discovered that the ancient Americans understood the wheel. Why then didn't they discover the wheel-barrow propelled by a single person? It would have made the construction of monuments and almost everything else, a lot easier.
Maybe. On the other hand, the horse, cattle, sheep, goats and a myriad of other creatures were available to the peoples of the entire 'old world.' Despite this, Europeans and Middle Easterners made the most effective use of them. Why?
Indeed, why? Let me postulate another couple of scenario. Let us imagine, that human societies spread over the earth are like the atmosphere spread over the earth. Why a storm in one place and not another? Perhaps a very minor, almost imperceptible perturbation, causes major changes down the line. A slight shift in atmospheric pressure over China and there's a devastating hurricane in Louisiana...a slight cultural perturbation, perhaps in now Albania, and Pizarro burns Atahualpa at the stake? Maybe the 'superiority' of Western culture is no more than a happenstance.
Also, although now largely discredited, who really knows if there are differences in the way that different brains work? This is not to say that certain brains are necessarily 'better' than others but that they might be different. Also, who is to say that industrialized, 'civilized' society is better than hunter gatherer societies? In many ways, it isn't. Civilized society is ulcerogenic. Hunter-gatherer societies are probably more satisfying and fun. Genesis, in the Bible, talks of man being thrown out of Paradise and having to work by the sweat of his brow. This is almost certainly an allegory about the replacement of enjoyable and care-free hunter-gatherer existence as opposed to the drudgery of early civilization.
Why is domination a function of a pressure wave produced by black powder in a pipe propelling a leaden slug? Luck?
Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Conquest of Mexico
 Wishful Thinking, finely wrought September 27, 2008
A rich gravy of erudition smothers a thin slice of slightly tainted meat, i.e. the thesis (it's all geography & luck) is undoubtedly wrong, or, at the very best, accounts for tiny proportion of the discrepancies he attempts to explain. For detailed analysis, see the # 1 review by Christopher Smith (whom I don't know). There's more critical thought in that review than in the book itself.
On the other hand, the "gravy" alone, the research and erudition, is probably worth the price of the book. Otherwise, see David Landes, "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations."
Exactly the answers I wanted in twice the length I needed September 20, 2008
I'd wondered for a long time why certain aspects of history that you learn as facts in school turned out the way they did, e.g. why European diseases basically wiped out Native Americans but not vice-versa. I bought the book because I heard that Jared Diamond answered these types of questions. He does, to an extent. At the very least, he gives convincing arguments for why history turned out the way it did based on the traits of geographic regions. The best part about having read this book is that now I feel like I can open a world map and use it to explain to someone why Eurasia came to dominate the world and not people from somewhere else. The argument is speculation, but it's convincing and sound enough for my satisfaction. In that way, it's exactly what I wanted.
The only problem isn't in the content; it's in the fact that Diamond just didn't write a perfect book around that content, so I'll give him four stars instead of five. If it had been about two-thirds the length, it might have been perfect. Instead, I sometimes got the feeling that Diamond was thinking, "I've made a really great point here, and it's done, but if I talked about this example for a few more pages this book would look nice and fat wedged into the shelf at the bookstore." Nevertheless, my questions did get answered, and overall I recommend this to anyone who wants a geographic perspective on historic trends.
The Environmental Basis of History September 19, 2008
Jared Diamond is a professor of physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine, he expanded into evolutionary biology and biogeography. This book attempts to explain why certain parts of the world became predominant given the basic equality of humanity (p.16). Diamond questions whether "civilization" is better (p.18). It brings a longer life span, less murder, better medical care, etc. Are "Stone Age" peoples more intelligent than industrialized peoples (p.19)? [The former are not misinformed by the corporate media.] There is a difference between densely populated societies and sparsely populated societies (p.21). "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among the peoples themselves" (p.23). When Diamond talks about modern events you can see his faults. The Cuban Missile Crisis was in 1962 (p.279). There was no "isolationism" in the US as per the Briand-Kellogg Pact (p.412). That problem of "China's unity" is really the faults of any monopoly (p.413). That applies to the transistor as well (p.417).
The basis for development is to produce enough food to support craft specialists who develop technologies. This leads to governments, large nations, armies, wars of conquest, navies, and fleets for colonies. Diamond identifies several groups of environmental factors to explain the history of the world for the past 13,000 years (p.31). Can a single book provide all the answers? There was a huge change in human capabilities about fifty to a hundred millenia ago (p.40). [The simplest explanation for the demise of animals is the consumption of their eggs and young by humans (p.43).] Chapter 2 tells about the Maori invasion of the Chatham Islands in December 1835. They exterminated the Moriori people (p.53). This shows how environments affect human societies (p.54). Diamond compares Polynesian societies to show the effects of the environment (p.58). The population had the same ancestral society yet their cultural differences are explained by their varying environment (p.65).
Chapter 4 explains why agriculture and livestock are the foundation for human advancement. Both require more labor than in hunting-gathering societies (p.105). Livestock that give milk provide more calories than from a slaughtered animal. Vegetables and animals are adapted to the climate by latitude (p.184). Diseases limited the range of domesticated animals (pp.186-187). Diseases are spread by livestock and pet animals (Chapter 11). Until WW II diseases killed more soldiers than battle (p.197). European cities had a higher death rate than rural villages before the 20th century (p.205). Writing transmits knowledge with accuracy, quantity, and detail (Chapter 12). Is Diamond correct about Iraqi literacy (p.216)? Weren't Europeans more advanced in nuclear science (p.225)?
Diamond's comments about inventions are wrong or misleading (p.243). Otto invented his engine to provide power from a waste product from oil refining (p.247). Henry Ford `invented' the automobile specifically to replace horses (p.243). Steam locomotives were designed to replace horses and their expensive fodder. Diamond is wrong about the supersonic transport (p.249). You could buy a Dvorak keyboard if people wanted them (p.248); just as a country could drive with a steering wheel on the right. Chapter 18 summarizes this book. Chapter 19 tells about the peoples and languages of Africa. Diamond seems very sure in describing events from 5,000 years ago when he wasn't present as an observer. The condensed version of this book made an interesting movie on TV. This book should have fewer pages by eliminating redundant or extraneous material, and be faster paced. I wonder if there are any opposing viewpoints to his opinions?
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